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Announcing the Spinoff of Climate Interactive

August 2, 2010 by Andrew P. Jones

After a year of rising impact for the Climate Interactive (CI) program of Sustainability Institute, the board of SI and the staff of CI are pleased to announce that the program is “spinning-off” from Sustainability Institute.

Starting today, August 2, Climate Interactive is a project of the Washington D.C.-based New Venture Fund. After the transition, CI will continue to use system dynamics simulation modeling to help leaders around the world build better understanding of the dynamics of the Earth’s climate system and the human economic and energy systems that interact with it. SI will continue to pursue its core mission of shifting mindsets and systems towards sustainability as well as sharing the legacy of SI’s founder, internationally known writer and systems analyst, Donella Meadows.

Generous early ‘start-up financing’ and leadership from SI management helped launch the CI project and build on early support from key external donors. In the subsequent years Climate Interactive grew from a pilot program to a multi-organizational consortium providing real-time analysis during international climate change talks in Copenhagen in December 2009. Throughout that period, SI’s experience at developing innovative programs and using system dynamics to create actionable insights with stakeholders from food and agriculture to health care policy were essential ingredients in Climate Interactive’s success.

Looking forward into the second half of 2010 and beyond, the Climate Interactive team of Andrew Jones, Elizabeth Sawin, Phil Rice, and Stephanie McCauley, along with partners at MIT, Tufts University, and Ventana Systems and elsewhere are embarking on a number of new projects including participation in international scientific review of greenhouse gas emissions reduction pledges sponsored by the United Nations Environment Program, development of a policy maker oriented simulation on the transition to a low carbon economy, and various training programs for climate change leaders. These projects and more can be followed at www.climateinteractive.org.

The Sustainability Institute is beginning a vigorous strategic planning process, and will be seeking input from the Climate Interactive team and a wider network of thinkers and practitioners in sustainability. Updates on Sustainability Institute are available at www.sustainabilityinstitute.org.